EE upgrades network to support enhanced HD voice

EE, part of BT Group, has upgraded its network to become the first operator in the UK to support the next generation of voice service, Enhanced HD Voice, enabling the highest quality mobile phone calls ever on the latest smartphones.

The upgrade, known as Enhanced HD Voice or Enhanced Voice Services, is supported on the latest smartphones when using either 4G or WiFi Calling, and when making calls to Enhanced HD Voice users.

Enhanced HD Voice will improve sound quality of phone calls far beyond standard voice and even beyond HD Voice, and will increase the reliability of voice calls across EE’s 4G network, which covers more than 85% of the UK geography.

Max Taylor, MD of Marketing at EE, said: “We launch the very latest technologies so that EE customers get the best performance on the latest smartphones. We already have 4G in more places than any other UK operator, and we have the fastest 4G speeds for streaming, downloading and sharing. Now we’re launching Enhanced HD Voice so that calls are of the highest quality and the most reliable they’ve ever been.”

Enhanced HD Voice is available on EE’s IMS (IP Multimedia subsystem) based services, including 4G Calling (VoLTE) and WiFi Calling. EE has upgraded its IMS platform to support the latest 3GPP voice codec to get the best possible voice performance from the latest devices.

EE’s 4G Calling technology, available on every 4G site, is now used by more than five million customers making more than 300 million high quality calls every month.

EE also recently announced that more than 600 sites across cities including London, Birmingham, Manchester, Edinburgh and Cardiff, will be upgraded with the latest 4G spectrum over the next six months. The sites will power the next wave of mobile devices to hit the UK market, equipped with ‘Cat 12’ and ‘Cat 16’ modems, making sure consumers are getting the most from their new smartphones.